by By Howard Herman , The Berkshire Eagle

We're talking about Cornell center Derek Punches, who might just have the best name in hockey.

If his parents had a real sense of humor, the Manchester, Mich., native wouldn't be just 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weigh 179 pounds.

Punches would be Milan Lucic, Sean Avery or Georges Laraque.

"What other sport could he play? It's a great hockey name," Cornell coach Mike Schaefer said.

Punches doesn't throw punches -- in fact he doesn't really throw his weight around. He played three years at Wayne State and transferred to Cornell when Wayne dropped hockey.

Punches is a senior for the Big Red, and he had to be exhausted after Friday's double-overtime win against Princeton in the ECAC Hockey League's second semifinal at the Times Union Center. In fact, he was so exhausted; he and most of his teammates were gone from the arena within 20 minutes of the game ending to get some rest.

In four seasons, he has accumulated only 83 penalty minutes. He had only eight minutes in 17 games with the Big Red this year.

"My old boss, Bill Wilkinson (at Western Michigan University), told me he was just a tremendous kid and it was unfortunate that Wayne State was dropping their program," said Schaefer. "He's a great student and a great kid."

Cornell has been nationally ranked all year. A win late last night against Yale would return Cornell to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time this decade.

Schaefer is a good coach, and may have been a bit of an imp when it comes to some line combinations involving Derek Punches.

"He started out the year on a line with Tyler Mugford," said Zeise. "So you've got Mugford on one corner and Punches on the other . It was great."

Mugford is also a pretty good hockey name. Mugford has twice as many penalty minutes as Punches, but that total is only 187 in 123 games. Not exactly goon territory.

"He's a great kid, he's very disciplined," said Schaefer. "He's nothing like his name."

It's always good to get to this tournament and see Berkshire County folks here -- as I did on Friday.

Berkshire County is certainly known for sending baseball people to the big leagues as players and front office types. A number of Berkshire County natives and college-trained types are college basketball coaches. We even have two former Williams College players as Division I football coaches.

Hockey, as great a game as it is, hasn't had the Berkshire County-based representation of those other sports.

Sure, Great Barrington's Corey Milan is the starting goalie for Division I Union, but that seems to be it. It isn't.

Kacey Bellamy, who just finished her senior year at the University of New Hampshire, is a graduate of Berkshire School in Sheffield, and she is one of 32 players invited to Lake Placid later this month, to try out for the U.S. women's national team. The team will go to the World Championships in April.

One of the assistants who is helping pick the team is a familiar name to Berkshire County hockey-o-philes. Dave Flint was the goalie for the former North Adams State and he backstopped the Mohawks to the ECAC playoffs.

Flint is now the women's coach at Northeastern, and will assist Mark Johnson behind the bench for the U.S. women.

And then there is Princeton assistant Matt Lindsay, in his second year as an assistant with the Tigers. He spent several seasons in Division III after graduating from Williams in 2001. He won the Bill McCormick Coaches Award, given to the Eph who exemplifies the qualities and ideals that the former coach stood for.

When you watch high level college hockey, you are watching the future of the National Hockey League. That was on display Friday with Cornell's Riley Nash, a player who will one day be skating in the Garden and on Versus (if you can find Versus).

Nash, a sophomore from Kamloops, B.C., Canada, was Edmonton's first-round pick in the 2007 draft. Nash, whose older brother Brendon is a defenseman with Cornell, was an ECAC Third-team pick and All- Ivy League .

Nash and his line mates must have felt like they were in the NHL, with all the clutching and grabbing going on.

"I felt like I was getting a little frustrated early on, hoping there would be some tighter calls," he said. "After that, I said I have to go out and work hard. I can't really control what the refs are going to do. I just kind of put my head down and got to work."

Spoken like a true NHL player -- certainly like a true Boston Bruin.

Maybe Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli can work a trade with Edmonton? Nash would look good in black and gold.

To reach Howard Herman: hherman@berkshireeagle.com, (413) 496-6253.

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